Computational Engineering Gets Boost with Groundbreaking

Contact: Philip Montgomery
Phone: (713) 831-4792

Computational Engineering Gets Boost with Groundbreaking

Engineering at Rice leaped into the future
today with the groundbreaking for the $16.5 million, high-tech
Computational Engineering Building on the Rice University campus.

Grade school students from The Rice School/La Escuela Rice used
computers to control robots performing the groundbreaking before an
audience of about 400 faculty, staff, students and distinguished
visitors. Anita K. Jones ’64, the director of defense research and
engineering for the Department of Defense, delivered the keynote
address at the groundbreaking.

Jones said that in the future computation will offer to science
and engineering an even more powerful tool as high-performance
parallel computers and high-quality visual devices are combined. As
information technology unfolds, researchers can look forward to new
and more powerful tools to pursue the questions facing science and
engineering.

"Constructing a computational engineering building is evidence
that Rice is aggressively exploiting information technology," Jones
said. "This shows vision and leadership within [Rice] University.
Those universities that don’t exploit information technology will be
second rate, and those that do will be first rate in the future."

The groundbreaking for the 112,000-square-foot Computational
Engineering Building was held near the former site of the Bonner
Nuclear Laboratory north of Lovett Hall. The building was designed
by John Outram, a London-based architect. Construction will begin in
December. The building is expected to be ready for occupancy by
August 1996.

The new building will house the Center for Research on Parallel
Computation (CRPC), the Computer and Information Technology
Institute (CITI), and the Departments of Computational and Applied
Mathematics, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Computer Science,
and Statistics.

"Today’s symbolic breaking of ground is a significant signpost
in a journey that began many years ago," said Rice president Malcolm
Gillis. "As noted, it is a culmination of efforts by many talented
people. Our expectation is that the teaching and research that will
take place in this facility will have a great impact on the
university and ultimately on our society. The building will house a
large interior public space rimmed with private offices,
auditoriums, classrooms, lecture halls, galleries, courtyards,
laboratories and conference rooms. It has been designed to foster
interchange among researchers and students in computational and
applied mathematics, computer science, electrical and computer
engineering, and other related fields. Above all, the building will
support the interdisciplinary collaboration that is the backbone of
this undertaking."

Computational engineering refers to any application of computing
to engineering tasks.

"Computational engineering is the modern tool of almost all
branches of engineering today," said Michael Carroll, the dean of
engineering at Rice. "Theory and experimentation are the first two
elements of the foundation of modern engineering and science.
Computation is now the third element of that foundation."

The Computational Engineering Building also will provide an
important location for the interaction between industry and
researchers, said Ken Kennedy, the director of CRPC.

"The success of the Center for Research on Parallel Computation
depends on building a close working relationship with industry,"
said Kennedy. "The new Computational Engineering Building has been
designed with this in mind. It incorporates ample space for
meetings, including an auditorium and several excellent conference
rooms. Most of these facilities are clustered around the main hall,
which I hope becomes a center for interaction with the technical
community."

Rice University is an independent, coeducational, nonsectarian
private university dedicated to undergraduate teaching and graduate
studies, research and professional training in selected disciplines.
It has an undergraduate student population of 2,572, a graduate and
professional student population of 1,375 and a full-time faculty of
448.

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